Cannes 2011. Snapshots: Eric Khoo's "Tatsumi"

An animated autobiography of genius mangaka and master of alt-anime Yoshihiro Tatsumi, adapted from his autobiography A Drifting Life: the Singaporian filmmaker goes back to the first part of his career, since Khoo did work as a comic artist deeply influenced by Tatsumi's Goodbye and Other Stories. His film follows closely Tatsumi's style and mood (the famous gekiga, or dramatic pictures, a dark and socially committed style in comics born in post-war Japan). Tatsumi's voice in his Osakan dialect and a constant attention to accuracy make one think that the film is Tatsumi's as well as Khoo's. For those who know little of Japanese comics, they should be fascinated and moved by this story of a life that conveys both the still little known story of post-war occupied Japan (marked by post-atomic traumas, poverty broken families...as in some of Miyazaki films) and a vibrant fable about creation.

Notebook
is a daily, international film publication. Our mission is to guide film lovers searching, lost or adrift in an overwhelming sea of content. We offer text, images, sounds and video as critical maps, passways and illuminations to the worlds of contemporary and classic film. Notebook is a MUBI publication.